We made it to Monday, which seems like a bit of an accomplishment.
We try and talk about safety in our write ups as it is central to everyone’s lives. I have a bit of a safety share, which happened to me over this past week that hopefully you can learn from. My current job has me doing Environmental Managing and Process Improvements to a mill and mine site in rural Utah, having moved on from the firearms industry a few years ago.
Tuesday I found myself in a heavy equipment maintenance building where there were some industrial batteries on the floor. These batteries are about the height and width of a typical car battery but are 2 feet long in some cases. I was talking to a co worker when I took a step back, and my foot unexpectedly hit one of these batteries, I stumbled, tried to regain my footing, rolled my ankle over, and ended up breaking it in three places.
This accident was obviously a preventable one, the batteries had been stored there for many years without incident, but should have been stored on a shelf or elevated platform where they were not a tripping hazard. I should have been paying closer attention to my surroundings and recognized that as a potential risk. I was wearing steel toes boots that ended well above the ankle, as I knew I had weak ankles, this likely prevented a more serious injury. (Though I wonder how it could have been worse)
Now that I have plenty of time to reflect on what could have been, I think about all the times I did potentially dangerous things, and paid close attention to safety and to my surroundings. It was something simple, that ended up really messing me up. Fortunately it is a lesson to be learned, if you work in the industry, and use the 2.5 gallon buckets, or even the 5 gallon buckets, what are you doing to ensure they don’t become a tripping hazard? How about empty pallets? Do you keep the work area clean from stray bullets? they are like bearings and they can be a slipping hazard.
I fully recognize that you could have tripped like I did, 1,000 times over, and had a far more favorable outcome. I’m not old, just 32, but I’m not a spring chicken either. Just take a moment today and look around your work space and see if there is something you can do to prevent a trip or a fall.
With all of this week’s excitement, that ended with surgery and a permanent plate in my ankle, I was hard pressed to get a write up finished. However I did finish one on the Hi-Tek coating. Luckily I was able to finish coating the bullets on Monday, and had the time to write the article over the past few days.
Overall my impression is favorable of this new coating. However it did not come without it’s challenges and lessons to be learned. Here is the write up for that.
I’ll still try and maintain at least one write up per week as I go through this healing period, but a lot of the projects I have been working on, are somewhat delayed. As it will take me somewhere between 6 to 8 weeks to get back on my feet. We’ll keep on keeping on 🙂
As always if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions please email me at jayandrew338@gmail.com. Alternatively you can check out our Facebook page. Thanks for being a subscriber and have an awesome week!
Best Wishes!
The Ballistic Assistant